Former
England captain was viewed as the debonair amateur but remained a deep thinker despite his dashing lifestyle
![Ted Dexter was the aristocrat adventurer who helped modernise English cricket | Matthew Engel](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7dd9df6a828b30a6ef28b7303e6ae4026ffc8b06/229_220_2433_1460/master/2433.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctb3BpbmlvbnMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=c8161b7213ab493385b2f7b43ecaa3c1)
Back in 1997, Ted Dexter was at the Hay Literary Festival to promote the latest of the dozen or so books that would appear under his name. At the last moment the scheduled interviewer had to pull out; nearby alternatives proving elusive, the organisers ordered a taxi to bring the
Cricket writer Rob Steen from
London to the Welsh Marches sharpish.
Aside from the cricketing connection, the two could hardly have had less in common. Dexter was tall, Tory, aristocratic in his bearing, seemingly aloof, quietly devout in his Christianity; Steen – not tall, leftie, down-to-earth, chatty, Jewish. Afterwards, having already stretched Hay’s budget, Rob blagged a lift back from Ted in his cream Rolls-Royce convertible.